Out of Left Field – an Albanian Watch: “Primordial Passion” Unique Piece by Pirro Artistic Jewelry featuring 12 Sculpted Folk Dancers
by Ian Skellern
When you think of Albania, a small Balkan country on the Adriatic and Ionian seas north of Greece, I imagine that, 1. You can’t remember if/when you last thought of Albania and 2, if you did, you weren’t thinking high-end artistic watchmaking.
Pirro Artistic Jewelry, based in the Albanian capital of Tirana has a mission to change that. With around 30 years of experience in artistic crafts and years of investment in high-end Swiss horology, Pirro has created “Primordial Passion”, the first Albanian artistic watch, which was manufactured at their atelier.
Primordial Passion is competing in the Artistic Crafts category at the GPHG 2024.
Primordial Passion features twelve Albanian folk dancers representing twelve regions, each unique and diverse in their respective regional embroidery.
Marking the hours, each of the 9-10 mm high gold figurines has been finely hand engraved to a micron precision.
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The movement is by Agenhor, which created the central hours and minutes time display around the four instrumentalists on center stage.
The bi-color 18 karat gold hands are shaped like the talons of an eagle. The eagle is the emblem of Pirro and features on the prominent logo above the centra stage, and on the crown.
The dial is a micro-mosaic red-black gradient of Murano glass tiles. There are 1,500 tiles in eight different colors with 64 different shapes. The smallest tiles measure a miniscule 0.2 mm.
The darker Murano glass tiles form subtle lines radiating out to each dancer, emphasizing the hours.
The back cover of the watch reflects the three-dimensional scene on the dial, with the folk dancers engraved in micro-relief.
While the dance and music stage is impressive, the sheer volume of sculptural art on the dial requires a very large amphitheater: the yellow gold case measures 46.5 mm in diameter and with that tall domed crystal, it sits 22 mm high. This is no wall flower, and you will need a large wrist to wear it comfortably.
Pirro’s Primordial Passion will not be to everyone’s taste, but as it’s a unique piece it only needs a well-heeled audience of one.
For more information, please visit www.pirro.al/en/
Quick facts: Primordial Passion by Pirro
Dial: a mosaic of 1,500 Murano glass tiles; 12 x 18k gold hand engraved figurines of Albanian fold dancers
Indications: central hours and minutes
Case: 18k yellow gold
Dimensions: 46.5mm diameter x 22mm high
Movement: Agenhor caliber AGH 6911 AP
Limitation: unique piece
Price: 1.200.000,00 CHF (VAT included)
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